The Catfish
by weloveglee
Summary: Ryder Lynn has been falling for someone online who he thought was a girl named Katie. He was wrong, and he doesn't know who is tricking him. All he knows is that this person is from the glee club... who is this person? Will he ever find out?
1. Who Are You?

Chapter One: _"Who Are You?"_

School had just recently gotten out at William McKinley High School and Ryder Lynn was packing up his backpack at the end of History, his last class of the day. Sam Evans, his best friend, stepped away from his desk and walked over to where Ryder was standing. "Dude, are you alright? You've seemed sort of… out of focus today." Sam said hesitantly.

Ryder zipped up his backpack and sighed. "I don't know what you're talking about, dude, I've just been really tired."

"Wait, really? That's your reason for acting the way you've been? 'Tired'? I'm your best friend, Ryder; I know when something wrong is going on with you. You can trust me."

"My problems are not everyone's business." Ryder replied sharply.

Sam took a deep breath. "Look I'm sorry, calm down...You don't have to tell me what's wrong. I'm just really worried about you."

Ryder began walking out of the classroom door and Sam followed closely behind him. "No you don't have to be sorry, Sam, I understand that you care about me and that's great. I'm so glad that you're here to support me, but this is just something I can't tell you. I've only told a couple people at the moment, and I just can't keep telling everyone." Ryder looked down at the ground in embarrassment as the two of them neared towards the school exit door.

"Oh so you're telling other people what's going on but you aren't telling your best friend? That's not cool at all! I should be one of the few people you could actually trust!" Sam's voice and anger escalated.

"Sam! Just a minute ago you were cool with me not telling you!" Ryder looked at Sam, full of confusion.

Sam ran his fingers through his hair. "I was fine with you not telling me because I thought you didn't want to tell anyone at all. I thought that you actually trusted me. Well if you don't, then okay. I kind of feel like everyone is turning on me nowadays and if you're going to shut me out also I wouldn't be surprised."

"No, I don't want to shut you out." Ryder said, his voice growing tired. "I'm just really confused right now and I need to sort my life out."

"You obviously need space, so here it is." Sam said as he began walking towards the school's exit.

"Sam please just stop!" Ryder yelled desperately. "I'm sorry you're feeling lonely, can we both just talk about this?"

Sam sighed and walked out the door. "Don't even worry about it." He replied quietly.

* * *

Some days Ryder liked to walk home from school alone, it was a great opportunity for him to just reflect on his life and think his problems through.

"_You're such a loser, Ryder. Just freaking look at you. You're shutting your family out, your friends out, and even shutting the whole world out just to get close to this person you don't even know. When did you get so out of focus? When did you start letting people have this much of an impact on your life? Get back in the game, Ryder. Be normal like all the other guys in school. Date some cheerio, why are falling for some stranger online?"_ He sighed deeply as these thoughts ran through his head, making him dizzy.

"_But I know this person, right? This 'stranger' online is from glee club, I heard their cell phone go off when I called them. But who could it be? Why can't they just tell me who they are? If I knew who this person was, my life would just be so much easier. I can't sleep, I can't study, and I can hardly socialize because I'm so frustrated and stressed. I feel like absolutely no one knows what I'm going through. I can't tell Sam about this. He'll do what Jake did; he'll judge me for this. Sam has already made jokes about my past; this will just be another opportunity for him to laugh at me won't it?"_

Ryder kicked some rocks in his path and continued to stare at the ground. He turned the corner and headed towards his house. "In another life, you would be my girl; we'd keep all our promises-be us against the world." He sang quietly to himself under his breath. He stopped singing and walked into his house solemnly. "Mom, I'm home!" He yelled, and walked into the kitchen. He saw a note plastered on the fridge from his mom saying that she went out shopping. _"Mom's shopping, dad is at work…I've got the house to myself, and I do not mind that."_ He said.

He ran upstairs to his room and pulled out his homework. He opened his notebook and started to attempt to finish his essay due the next week. _"Why am I even trying to do this?"_ He thought to himself, pulling out his laptop.

"_Maybe Katie is online?" _He took a long, deep breath before logging onto his Facebook chat. _"Score; she's online, I guess I'll try to message her." _

**Ryder: **Hey…

It only took her a couple minutes to reply.

**Katie: **Hi.

Ryder thought a little while about what to say next.

**Ryder: **Why won't u tell me who u are? You keep saying no to video chats. U won't come clean to me. All u do is u set me up and say that u will tell me who u are and then we never end up meeting face to face.

**Katie: **Ryder, I can't tell you who I am. I know that it'll ruin our friendship.

**Ryder:** Well I know for a fact that u're one of the members of the glee club. I love every one in that group, I'm sure we can still remein friends if things don't work out. But I care about u, ok? I don't know what it is, but for some od reason I'm drawn to u. I've learned to trust in u with some of my biggest secrets in life. I've told u so much about myself; u eccept me for who i am and even look past my spelling mistakes! (: we've really gotten close here. Why can't u just tell me who u are so we can get close in real life, too?

**Katie: **It's not that simple.

**Ryder: **How is it not that simple? Please tell me.

**Katie: **I know that you're going to reject me and it would hurt me too badly inside. I won't be able to handle not talking to you anymore.

**Ryder: **Why do u think I'll reject you?

_**Katie **__has logged off._

Ryder slouched back into his chair. _"You just log off with no reply, really?" _He thought, while tapping his keyboard. _"I'm just going to call her number again, it's worth a shot." _ He dialed her number and stood up, pacing around his room waiting for her to answer.

He had called this number many times before without getting a reply, but this time someone actually answered. "Hello?" But he was not expecting to hear_ this_ person answer the phone…


	2. The Phone Call

Chapter Two: _"The Phone Call"_

_"I'm just going to call her number again, it's worth a shot." __Ryder dialed Katie's number and stood up, pacing around his room and waiting for her to answer._

_He had called this number many times before without getting a reply, but this time someone actually answered. "Hello?" He was not expecting to hear__ this__ person answer the phone…_

"Woah…" Ryder stopped pacing around his room and he felt as though time froze. "Blaine? Is that you?"

"Yeah man! Sorry it took me so long to answer this phone, haha!" Blaine laughed loudly on the other end. "I could barely freaking hear it!"

"Wait." Ryder said slowly, he noticed loud music in the background. "Are you at a party?"

"Yeah! It's freaking awesome!" Blaine yelled. "Best party EVER!" He let out a loud howl and Ryder pulled the phone away from his ear quickly. "Why aren't you here, bro? We could use your sweet end zone dance moves, haha!"

"That's not why I'm calling…I have an important question…are you Katie?" Ryder bit his lip.

"What? No! I'm Blaine, duh dummy!" Blaine laughed once more.

Ryder sighed deeply and sat down on his bed. "I know that you're Blaine, I'm just confused because this is the number that Katie has been text-

He was cut off by Blaine yelling into the phone again. "LOOK MAN, SORRY BUT I HAVE TO GO!" Ryder could hear people chanting Blaine's name in the background.

"No! Wait let me finish asking you about thi-

Blaine hung up the phone abruptly and Ryder fell backwards onto his bed. _"Really?"_ He thought to himself. _"Is it Blaine? I mean, maybe it is…but I thought he was crushing Sam…It would make sense that he would do this though, because I'm not into guys. That's why he might have created this fake Katie profile to get close to me…Or maybe it was someone else's phone at the party he was at? I need to go to the party right now and find out."_

Ryder then thought this through some more. _"Ugh, I don't even know where the party is or whose party it is…who's someone I can ask? I can't call Blaine again, he sounded just about as drunk as Puck does when I hear Jake talk on the phone with him when he's at a party. Maybe I can call Sam? I mean he's one of the most popular guys at this school, he's probably there, right?" _

Still lying down on his bed, he took his phone and hit Sam's number on speed dial. It only took a few seconds for Sam to answer.

"Oh hey, just the guy I wanted to talk to!" Sam answered the phone sarcastically.

Ryder was taken aback quickly by Sam's tone of voice at first, but then remembered that the two of them had fought just recently at the end of their last class.

"Hey dude. Are you feeling better?" Ryder asked with full attention, sitting up on his bed. He stared at the ground while waiting for his best friend to reply; now almost regretting calling him.

"Don't worry about me, okay." Sam replied. "I think the better question is how _you_ are doing. You're the one who needed space."

"Well I don't need any more space right now, I've had time to think things through and I really need a friend to chill with." Ryder shrugged his shoulders. "Can we just forget about the fight that happened, please?"

"I don't even understand why we fought in the first place. It's all okay, bro." Sam started laughing. "Wow, look at us. We don't need stupid high school drama. We're better than this! We're mature men!"

"Haha, we totally are! I'm glad we're cool now." Ryder sighed with relief.

"So you want to hang out? I'll bring some food and you fire up the x-box, aight?" Sam started getting his shoes on.

"Well Sam…about that…I was thinking that we could go to a party instead?"

"I could dig that. I mean, we're two of the hottest guys in school, I totally agree with you! Let's have some fun on a Friday night! Whose party are we going to? Will there be tons of chicks? If there are, I will most definitely be wearing my latest Justin Bieber inspired outfit."

"You're ridiculous, Sam." Ryder rolled his eyes and started laughing.

"I'm not, I'm a freaking genius! Don't you dare laugh at me for this! I pulled on my tight purple hoodie once in class, because Mr. P left the window open and I was freezing my ass off, and I got FIVE numbers from hot girls about two minutes afterwards!"

"Cool story." Ryder just laughed. "Well I don't know whose party this is; I was hoping you'd know."

"That's understandable, seeing as though I'm one of the top popular guys in school." Sam flipped his hair and sighed. "But I didn't hear anything about any party. Do you have any information on it at all?"

Ryder ran his fingers through his hair. "Um, all I know is that Blaine is there."

"OH…Now I know whose party it is! Blaine was telling me that he was going to it earlier today. A girl from the Cheerios is hosting it; she only invited most of the cheerleaders though. Unfortunately, I think you're only let in if you were invited."

"Let's just show up anyways and see if we can get in. How can we get her address?"

"Probably Tina, she was on the cheerios right? Plus she basically stalks everyone and is a loud mouth so it won't be THAT hard to get information out of her." Sam replied bluntly. "I'll call her right now and ask."

"Oh, so you're going to call her? Watch out, Sam, she might start falling in love with you too." Ryder teased his best friend.

"Maybe if I'm lucky, she'll come to my house and rub me up and down with vaporub!" Sam replied jokingly. "I'm gonna call her now, I'll text you the details once I get 'em."

"That sounds cool. Talk to you then." Ryder hung up his phone and fist pumped. _"Tonight, I'm finally going to find out who this secret Katie is!"_

* * *

Sam pulled up to Ryder's house in his car and started honking wildly. He rolled down his window. "DUDE COME ON LET'S GO!" Ryder looked out his window and saw Sam. He grabbed his jacket and walked out of his house.

"If you don't get over here soon enough, my cologne will start to wear off. White chocolate has to smell appetizing for the ladies...if you know what I mean..." Sam winked.

Ryder got into the passenger side of the car and put on his seat belt. "Haha, sure man, I'm sure they're _all_ going to want you."

"When do they not?" Sam winked again and pulled out of the driveway. "So where are your parents?"

"Don't worry about them, my mom just left with her friends to run more errands and my dad doesn't get home from work until late."

"Nice. Well Tina, being the creepy stalker she is, knew the address of the party and all that info so I have it here on my phone." Sam replied, tossing Ryder his iPhone.

"Haha, wasn't Tina invited to the party though?" Ryder asked, while checking the information out.

"No she wasn't. She just knew the place and details apparently." Sam shrugged. "But still, I'm glad I get to actually see some ladies tonight and not just a tv screen while playing video games."

"There's only one lady I want to see..." Ryder stared hopefully out the window.

"Um, who?" Sam asked. "Is it Marley? Because if it is, I can almost assure you she WON'T be there. That innocent, blue-eyed girl is most certainly_ not_ the party type."

"I'm not talking about her…"

"Who are you talking about then?" Sam looked quickly over at his best friend. "Dude, this is a bro thing, you_ have_ to tell me what chick you're crushing on."

"You'll find out." Ryder smiled mischievously.

"Damn, that smile is never a good sign." Sam shook his head slowly and revved his engine. "Let's get to this party."


End file.
